Dainius

As mentioned in a post from yesterday, Dainius has finally come up with some answers to my original questions. I’ve now edited what he wrote and have created a new set of questions to help illuminate some of the issues he discusses and to fill in some of the gaps in continuity. Additional to his text are some 200 photographs taken by him on his Nokia, some of them hinted at by me in terms of content, but most taken entirely at random. With the text I can now start working on the pictures and getting Dainius to add the second layer to his written account of his experiences living in the UK. This remains very much an experiment. I’ve included the edited text below and would be interested to hear comments on it from anyone. Today I visited a tiny museum dedicated to the blind in Lithuania. An extraordinary experience I learnt all about the slow integration of Lithuanian blind people into society over the last 80 years and have been thinking in particular about a blind choir and a blind potter who has a workshop around the corner from the office. No news until Monday on my Karaite connections. I may go away this weekend for a party on the coast. If not I’ll absolutely make the trip back to Trakai and will see if I can start making some progress. No reply to my email to the Karaite community as I predicted. Maybe also tomorrow I’ll drop by the Karaite restaurant here in Vilnius and see if I can get somebody there to help further the cause.

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Name Dainius Buržminskas
Nationality Lithuanian

I was born in Pasvalys Central Hospital on February 6, 1975. I grew up in the Lithuanian Highlands in a tiny village of less than 200 people called Nairiai, 5km south of the border between the Soviet republics of Lithuania and Latvia.

Although I’ve never seen my father I had good childhood. My grandfather was the real father in my life. Together we spent lots of time collecting mushrooms in the forest, riding on a motorcycle and playing chess. He passed away on September 1, 2008 and was an intelligent man with a good education and people liked him very much. My mother’s name is Laima. She’s 57 years old and lives in Nairiai. I love her and we keep in regular contact. She works as a cleaner in the village’s House of Culture. I’ve got a step-sister, Jolita, born in Pasvalys on January 3, 1978. She’s married with three children, a girl of 10 and two boys aged six and four. She’s unemployed and stays at home looking after the children.

At school I was good at sport and really enjoyed playing handball, football, basketball and running. I was one of the best runners in my area and was also the regional chess champion in my early teens. I finished secondary school in 1993 and was awarded a school leaving certificate. I had a lot of friends at school.

During the Soviet occupation we weren’t told that Lithuania was once an independent country. Our teachers never mentioned this and I genuinely believed Lithuania had always been part of the Soviet Union. When Lithuania gained independence on March 11, 1990 everything changed.

Between 1994 and 1997 I studied printing and publishing technology at a technological college in Lithuania’s second city, Kaunas. I lived in a student hostel where I made some good friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with. These were great times and I really enjoyed my student life. When I finished college I started work in a Kaunas printing company called Spaudos Praktika, but I wasn’t happy and decided to move and find a better job in the capital.

I moved to Vilnius in 1998 and worked for a publishing company called TEV who published educational books for schools, colleges and universities. As the director’s assistant, each day I gained more experience in publishing and printing and quickly learnt a lot. In Vilnius I made some really good friends who’ve stood by me over the years and who I respect greatly. During this time I also had my first serious relationship with a woman, Vaida, who I lived with for over two years.

Over the next five years or so I moved from company to company but was never happy with the ridiculous wages. It really was difficult to survive. On May 1, 2004 Lithuanian joined the European Union. Vaida found work in Norway and after three months we split up. One year later I borrowed some money and moved to England. I arrived by coach in Leeds on the morning of September 26, 2005. Myself and my travelling companion Vytas Pilelis travelled by taxi to an employment agency we’d registered with called Globamed International and where we met another Lithuanian guy called Dovydas Butkus. We were really tired after the long journey. Little did we know that this agency would piss off us. That’s was our welcome to England.

It turned out that the agency had lied to us about wages and accommodation. We were sent to work in a really bad nursing home in a town called Mirfild between Huddersfield and Wakefield. It was absolutely crap, and completely different to what we’d expected. We earned £4.85 an hour, the minimum wage in the UK at the time, working as care assistants. Accommodation came with the job, for which the three of us were expected to sign a contract to pay £320 each per month. A three-bedroom house at this time cost about £500, almost half what we were being made to pay. We refused to sign the contract, and on the same day met some Lithuanian guys on the street who helped us with a place to sleep. We spent a few nights in small two-bedroom house with five other people. After a few days we found two-bedroom house for £400 a month plus bills.

We worked like slaves. No respect, no attention. Just work, work and work. Always 12-hour shifts with only four members of staff and 26 residents. Some of the management treated us like animals. They were racists. They used to say very rude things about us, thinking we didn’t understand English. I thought about coming back to Lithuania. But after a year, when my English became better, I found a job in small printing house in Leeds where I worked as a print finisher. I felt better, started going out, meeting and talking to interesting people. England became friendly for me.

As my English further improved I met an English woman in a pub and we started a relationship. It was very interesting for me. Different traditions, different countries, but hearts beating with the same blood. I started working for another printing house. The work was very hard, with 12-hour shifts and just one 45-minute unpaid lunch break. Unfortunately the company didn’t keep their promises about wage increases and I soon left the job, and the woman. All this time I was living in the Harehills area of Leeds, where people were getting shot a few streets away from my front door. Realising this wasn’t the place for me, I first moved into another house full of Lithuanians before moving again into a house with a lot of Polish people, who I found to be very friendly.

I eventually found another job as a personal care assistant and decided to move away from Leeds. On Christmas Eve 2007 I moved to King’s Lynn on the north Norfolk coast with my Lithuanian girlfriend Danutė. We shared a room in a large house with a big garden. The other Lithuanians in the house were a young married couple, Juozas and Neringa and their baby, Nikas, a single guy called Erikas and young single woman, Laima.

When I’m not at work I like to travel around the UK whenever I can, discovering new and beautiful cities. So far I’ve visited Leeds, York, Dewsbury and Ilkle in Yorkshire, Birmingham, Bridgnorth, Stafford, Telford, Stone and Claverley in the Midlands, the Norfolk towns of Hunstanton, Norwich, King's Lynn and Sandrigham, plus Manchester and the two main Scottish cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I like to visit old buildings and museums, and I often take photographs of them. Sometimes I just go to the pub for few drinks but not much. I prefer a healthy life style. I don't smoke, and drink very little alcohol. My hobbies are travelling and working on my PC, which I’m just learning and am improving all the time.

One afternoon I was on duty looking after a client called Francis Palmer in Wolverhampton. I was looking out one of his windows, saw a wedding and made some pictures on my phone. I was excited to see an English wedding. It was an interesting experience and something new for me.

Lithuanian alcohol is good. All of it, including the vodka, the beer and the wine. I don't drink British alcohol apart from Scotch whisky, and I don't like English beer. Lithuanian food is all right, but I sometimes like different food, such as English, Russian, Indian and Russian cuisine. English food generally isn’t very good for me. I don't like fast food. I prefer nice, light and healthy food. I like to eat lots of vegetables, fresh salads.

Lithuanian people are very different from the English. Their culture and way of like depend very much on their education and religion. Some are very nice and friendly, but unfortunately mostly of them are selfish and just looking after themselves. I’ve found a few good Lithuanian friends in England, but I keep my distance from most of them. In my experience, the English don’t usually don't like immigrants, and a lot of them are racist. Having said that I’ve found some really nice English people. They respect foreigners who speak English, and are polite, well educated and always ready to help you. English people have a great sense of humour. Lithuanian women are different, and I don’t have a very good opinion about them. Many are just looking for a rich man who can provide an easy life for them, pay for everything and take care of them. Some of them are nice, looking after their family and taking good care of their men. I don't know many English women that well. In general they’re warm, polite and easy to talk to.

Daniel’s my client. I work and live with him one week on, one week off in Stone, Staffordshire. He’s got a great sense of humour, making the job of looking after him much easier. I do it because it's interesting, and the money’s good as well. Daniel’s 24, and was born in Stone, where he’s got own flat. He’s confined to an electric wheelchair. He’s got a lot of friends who visit him almost every day. He likes to go out in his car, usually to Stafford. He enjoys his PC and uses it to chat with his friends.

It's very difficult to say where I think I’ll be in five years. Sometimes I plan my life, but unpredictable things happen and my plans change.